Nightmare
by ice illuser
Summary: The new world is strange. It's silent, empty, and full of ghosts of the past.


Disclaimer: If I owned Tsubasa, I would have made Tomoyo/Kurogane cannon by now. Since it's not, I don't own Tsubasa.

A/N: This is a x-mas fic I wrote for my friend silverkitsune. See if you like it.

--

Quiet. That was the first thing Kurogane noticed about this new world, that it was much too quiet. Years of training as a ninja triggered his arm to automatically block the way of Syaroan, Sakura, and Fai. "Stop," he said, looking uneasily around the rugged terrain. Nothing moved.

"Eh, Kuro-rin, what's wrong?" asked Fai, looking around.

"It's too quiet," Kurogane muttered, too distracted to even bother telling Fai to stop coming up with stupid nicknames.

Mokona pounced onto Kurogane's head, "There's a feather here though!"

Kurogane swiped at Mokona, managing to knock the white manjuu off his head, "Get off manjuu. Move carefully, alright?"

Fai saluted him, "Yes sir, Kuro-pii!"

Kurogane muttered darkly, as they carefully began to move. The wind blew up sand from the scraggly little plants that grew from the dusty ground. After walking for awhile, Syaroan gave a cry and pointed to a toppled ruin that lay ahead of them, "Look at that!"

Fai blinked, and bent down to Syaroan, "Well, that's interesting. Any idea of what it is?"

"It might have been some sort of cathedral," Syaroan mused, "or maybe a theatre or something around those lines…"

"Syaroan-kun knows a lot about ruins?" asked Sakura, timidly.

"Well, I was an archaeologist, Sakura-hime sama," explained Syaroan as he examined the ruin, "Your kingdom had a lot of ruins that I looked at. Is the feather among the ruins, Mokona?"

Mokona tilted its head, and then nodded slowly, "It's here…somewhere. It's very faint, but it is somewhere in these ruins."

"There seem to be a lot of ruins though," Sakura commented softly, gesturing to the toppled buildings.

"Well then," said Fai cheerfully, stretching his long legs, "We'll just have to split up."

Kurogane frowned, "No."

"Oh, will Kuro-chan be scared? Or lonely?" asked Fai, grinning happily.

"Hell no!" yelled Kurogane, glaring at Fai, "This place is weird, and so far we haven't seen any people. Who knows if they're dangerous or not? It's better if we stick together."

"But," said Syaroan hesitantly, "Fai-san is right. There are too many ruins, and if we stick together, we'll probably never be able to find the feather soon."

Kurogane groaned, and grabbed Mokona by its ears, "Make yourself useful manjuu, and tell us which direction the feather is!"

Mokona happily twirled, "Twirl, twirl, twirl…."

Kurogane cursed and began shaking Mokona, "Answer the question!"

"It's too faint," answered Mokona in a sing-song voice, "Mokona can't tell what direction it's in!"

Kurogane growled in disgust and threw Mokona down, who bounced a bit, "Useless thing…"

"So then, Kuro-puu," said Fai, leaning on him, "are we going to split up, or no?"

Kurogane shoved him off, "It won't work in the first place," he growled angrily, "We need the white manjuu if the feather is hidden, and unless it can be split into four pieces that work—"

"We can figure that out later," interrupted Fai, "but first we should split up and look around to see if there are any likely sites. Then we can meet back here, and compare notes."

"That sounds like a good idea…" Sakura said.

"But how are we supposed to split up?" asked Syaroan, looking at Sakura.

"Hey…" Kurogane said, trying to get their attention, but they were too busy planning.

"Well, Kuro-pon can go by himself, unless of course he's scared in which I'll go with him—"

"Like hell—"

"So," continued Fai smoothly, "I'll go by myself, you can go by yourself too Syaroan-kun, and Mokona and the princess can search together."

"Who said that I agreed to this plan?" Kurogane asked, with his arms crossed.

Fai gestured to himself and the other three, "Majority rules, Kuro-pon."

"Stop calling me names!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kuro-tan."

--

Kurogane muttered darkly as he leapt over ruins, "Stupid wizard, stupid manjuu, stupid majority…" He picked up a rock randomly, and threw it, "Stupid witch, stupid Tomoyo, stupid assassins…"

There was a scuffling sound, and Kurogane spun around. There was nothing there. Kurogane glared around suspiciously, before resuming his ranting.

Mist curled up slowly behind him, and drifted began drifting around behind him.

--

Fai was practicing whistling while keeping a sharp eye out for anything that looked like a feather might be close by. But try as he might, he just couldn't _quite _get the hang of it. He frowned in disappointment, "It worked before," he mused out loud to himself, "but why isn't it working now? Does it not work if I'm not whistling for magic? Hm…I wonder…"

Because he was so interested in the concept of whistling, he didn't realize until it was right in front of him that something was wrong. He stopped his musings abruptly and stared at terror at the calm long black haired man standing in front of him.

"A-ashura-ou," he whispered, feeling cold sweat beginning to drip from his forehead, "How…?"

Ashura walked forward slowly, and Fai backed away. Giving Ashura another terrified glance, Fai began to run. Ashura simply smiled calmly, and followed.

--

Syaroan tried not to be distracted by the ruins since after all it was extremely important to find Sakura-hime's feather, but…he was an archeologist, new ruins were the equivalent to a gigantic box of gourmet chocolate to a chocolate lover.

He sighed, and argued to himself that just examining _one ruin _wouldn't be too bad. It wouldn't take that long, and who knew, he might actually find a feather.

Thoroughly convinced, he bent down to look at a column that had been carved with spirals. He was so engrossed with it, that until a small hand tapped him on the shoulder, he didn't notice that someone was standing behind him.

He jumped, and turned around. His eyes widened in shock. Standing before him was, well, _him. _A younger him though, with the eye patch still over his eye…

Unintentionally, he stepped back, "Who—" he choked out.

The little boy tilted his head, and didn't say anything. Suddenly, Syaroan heard the rush of rain, and it was pouring. People were suddenly all passing by, bumping into him and the little one, and not bothering to even give them a glance. Syaroan looked around frantically, trying to figure out what was going on. He grabbed the sleeve of one of the people, "Please, sir, could you tell me—"

The man turned around. Syaroan paled as he realized it was Fujitaka, his deceased adoptive father. Fujitaka quickly shook him off without saying anything, and walked away.

Syaroan began to run down the street, screaming, "Hello? Please, someone, look at me! Can't you hear me? _Can't you see me?_" But no one bothered to look.

--

Sakura stepped carefully through the ruins, with Mokona bouncing up and down ahead, "Come on Sakura!"

"Yes, just hold on…" she carefully extracted a corner of her dress from a corner of the ruins, "I think I should get new clothes…" she murmured to herself.

Mokona shook its head, "Mokona doesn't have any extra clothes, sorry!"

"That's okay Moko-chan," she replied, patting Mokona on the fluffy white head, "I'll just have to make do as it is."

"If you say so," answered Mokona doubtfully, hopping forward, "I'll go check ahead, okay?"

Sakura nodded as Mokona hopped off. Sitting down, she sighed. I feel very useless, she thought aimlessly drawing patterns in the sand, I mean Kurogane-san, Fai-san, and Syaoroan-kun have all been trying their best to help me get my feathers back, but I can do barely anything….

"Yes you are quite useless," someone whispered right next to ear. Sakura spun around to see Syaoroan, perched on a rock. She smiled nervously, and brushed a few light brown strands of her hair away from her face, "Syaroan-kun? What are you doing here?"

Syaroan laughed harshly, "If I wasn't here; you'd probably fall down a ditch or something," his lips curled up into a sneer, "Not that that would be a bad thing."

Sakura stared at him, her hand going up to her mouth, "Syaroan-kun? What—"

"My god you disgust me," muttered Syaroan, standing up, "You can't get out a complete sentence without stuttering, can you? Oh," he continued conversationally, "and it's not just me that thinks that. Kurogane, Fai, and even Mokona think so too. The only reason we're even bothering to look for feathers is because—"

Sakura ran away, as fast as she could, tears blurring her vision. But Syaroan simply followed her, his voice relentless and loud, "Is because we pitied you! You were a comatose girl who couldn't do a thing! We thought you'd be a bit more useful after you woke up, but you were still useless! Maybe even more, since now you could get yourself in trouble where before you were just dead weight!"

Sakura tripped as her dress once again got caught on one of the ruins, but she just tugged on it until it ripped off. She kept on running, tears running down her face.

--

"Okay," Kurogane muttered to himself, staring at all the white mist, "what the hell is this supposed to be?"

Obviously getting no answer, he ripped his sword out of its sheath, and brandished it in front of him, "If whoever's doing this doesn't come out soon," he threatened dangerously, "I'm not just going to wait here."

Hearing movement behind him, he spun around, and roared, _"Stop_ _hiding!"_

He waited, and slowly the sound of long dragging robes grew louder, until finally a pale pretty long black haired woman stepped into view wearing a long kimono with a long robe that reached the ground. Kurogane's grip on his sword loosened, "Mother," he whispered.

The woman smiled, and then spoke, "Kurogane. Why didn't you save me?"

Kurogane's red eyes widened, "What? Mother—"

Her wounds began to bleed as she frowned and shook her head, "You should have saved me that day. Didn't you say that you wanted to protect Suwa and us?"

Kurogane gritted his teeth and as grip on his sword became tighter, "That was my dream."

"You didn't manage to though. You broke your promise," she said, shaking her head again sadly, "Your father and I were so disappointed. We—" She gasped in disbelief as Kurogane ran his sword through her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

She gagged, and spat out blood, "Kurogane—how could you? I'm your mother—"

"No you aren't," said Kurogane dispassionately wrenching the sword out, "my mother died a long time ago. Nothing will change that."

Suddenly her image twisted, and disappeared. A gentle hand touched his shoulder, and turned him around slightly. Kurogane groaned to see the smiling face of Tomoyo staring up at him. Before she could open her mouth however, he shoved her hand off, and took off running.

Godamnit, he thought as he jumped from ruin to ruin, either this is a place that's just full of illusions, or someone's messing with our heads. And I'm betting that someone's messing with our heads.

A voice in his head that sounded an awful lot like Tomoyo's said, well aren't you suspicious Kurogane?

He shook his head, growling to the voice; well that's how I keep you safe. Anyway, either the people here have a natural power like this, or…someone has a feather. Probably a feather since they seem to have been so far away. But where—

There. A weird glow that Kurogane had grown to associate with Sakura's feathers seemed to be down in an arch created by two toppled walls. He ran closer stealthily to try and make sure the occupant didn't know he was there. As he drew closer, he heard the sound of someone sniffling and sobbing. He peered in and saw a small transparent looking green haired boy huddled in the corner, protectively cradling the feather, and crying.

"Hey brat," the boy looked up, frightened, "Yeah you. What the hell do you think you're doing, conjuring up ghosts and illusions from my past? Hey," at this Kurogane's eyes narrowed, "Are you doing this to the others too?"

The boy stared at him tearfully, before holding the feather out above his head. It glowed, and suddenly everyone that Kurogane had met was standing in front of him, all whispering and shooting dirty looks at him. Kurogane stared at them impassively before yelling, "Okay brat that's enough. I know this isn't real, so you can quit it."

The people paused, and then faded away, leaving the little green haired boy sitting there, with his head in hands, and crying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he managed to sob out, "please just leave me alone, don't hurt me, I'm sorry, go away—"

Kurogane dropped down into the recess, and crouched down, "Why are you doing this?"

The boy didn't look at Kurogane, "I'm sorry, I have to, I'm sorry, I'm scared, I'm sorry, there is no one else here—"

Kurogane frowned, "What do you mean there's no one else here?"

"Leave me alone, war, I'm sorry, everyone died, go away, there's only me left, don't hurt me, I'm so scared…" the boy's voice trailed off as he began sobbing.

Kurogane tried to awkwardly pat the boy on the back, only to have his hand go through the boy. He stared at the boy, "Are you a ghost?" he finally asked.

"Go away, I don't know, I'm sorry, I found a feather, don't hurt me, I'm still not dead, I'm sorry, I'm so scared, I want to die, leave me alone, there's no one here, I'm sorry, the feather won't leave me—"

Kurogane held out his hand, "So you really should be dead, but you aren't because of the feather. Are you sure you want to die?"

The boy looked up at Kurogane for the first time, "I'm sorry, yes please, leave me, give me peace, go away, I'm begging you…"

Kurogane gently took the feather away from the boy. The boy sighed and began to fade away slowly like one of his own illusions, "I'm sorry, thank you."

Kurogane stayed with the boy until he finally faded away and vanished. He then twirled the feather, stuffed it into his pocket, and began running back to the meeting place.

--

Fai sat trembling while Syaroan supported a crying Sakura with Mokona trying to comfort her, "It wasn't real, Sakura! Besides we don't think you're useless, do we Fai?"

Fai didn't respond, instead staring off to space with glazed eyes.

Mokona leapt onto Fai's head, "We don't think Sakura's useless, do we Fai?" it asked directly into Fai's ear.

Fai blinked, "Oh, oh no, of course we don't."

"What was that?" asked Syaroan, setting Sakura down gently.

Mokona shrugged, "It was some sort of magic, probably feather linked."

"So we have to go _back there?" _asked Syaroan, horrified.

"No we don't," answered Kurogane, finally appearing from the ruins, and holding out the feather, "I found the feather."

Syaroan's eyes widened in surprise, as he took the feather and watched it sink into Sakura.

Kurogane sat down next to Fai, "Well?"

Fai turned around with his customary grin on his face, "My idea was a good one, wasn't it Kuro-mii?"

"Your idea nearly got all of us killed," muttered Kurogane, watching Syaroan and Mokona, "there was some kid there. The last survivor of a war who should have been dead, but had gotten a hold of a feather so couldn't die. He was scared I guess, so he projected illusions."

"Oh, that makes sense," stated Fai as he stood up, limbs still occasionally twitching, "Well then Mokona, shouldn't we get going?"

Mokona nodded, and opened his mouth. Everyone whooshed in, and now there was truly no one on the war-stricken planet.

--

A/N: Well…I personally don't like it much, but please review!


End file.
